I logged into my blog Friday afternoon with the intention of upgrading a few plugins, spring cleaning and rearranging here and there, and making a post or two. I ended up moving my domain to a whole new host.

Largely, it was the inability to run the Askimet plugin that prompted the decision. After getting hit by 100+ spam comments on these pages in the past 10 days, I figured I needed to improve my spam-blocking methods. Askimet is supposed to be the premier spam-blocker for WordPress, but my former host was not configured to permit Askimet to work. This is not the first time I’ve had this problem using plugins on my old host. Not more than a month ago I had to ask them to change the settings on my account to allow the Livejournal crossposter to work, and there are several other third-party plugins that I have had to abandon because of their restrictions.

And then one of their sales reps had the nerve to email me this week and ask me if I was happy with my service and “wouldn’t I really rather upgrade to an annual payment?”

Got me thinking.

Got me moving.

Found a new host that is cheaper and more explicitly friendly to WordPress and signed on. Everything is uploaded to the new host now (or nearly everything…the defunct family blog is not set up yet) and the DNS has been changed but clearly everything is not perfect. For instance, while the front page of this blog is happily visible, if you click on anything, you’re going to get one of those lovely 404 errors. I need to figure out what’s up with that. My sub-sites (She’s a Doll! and Promise) are available, should anyone care to visit there.

But I’m working on it. I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone who might be visiting here. Hopefully it will all be resolved soon.

In the meantime, if you have any recommendations for changes or additions to this blog and site — content, layout, anything — now’s the time to speak up, while everything’s all shook up and I don’t know how it will settle.

EDIT: 30 minutes (and several interruptions) later, I was able to fix the link problem by updating my .htaccess file. Now…on to content!

I really do love living in Southern California, despite being overcrowded and overpriced. It’s the mountains, it’s the beach, it’s the desert: it’s being able wander from one to the other in the course of an afternoon and still never be further than an hour from your own front door.

Even though I have lived here most of my life, I am still surprised by how often the strange beauty of this place can take my breath away. Maybe it’s because it’s masked by the suburban sprawl: in less developed places, the natural beauty of the world is much more obvious. Here, just when you think the landscape of mini-malls and housing developments goes on forever, you round a corner and…there’s a mountain vista that makes you forget just how long you’ve been sitting on the freeway.

If I could travel anywhere in time, I would want to visit California about 200 years ago, to see this magnificent landscape before it was covered with asphalt and concrete and swimming pools. I try to imagine it sometimes, and there are a few places where you can get a glimpse of what once was…but I wish I could go back and see it for myself.

Yesterday, we took an expedition to Dana Point, to visit my sister Natasha who is in town with her husband on a business trip. That’s her to the right, looking pregnant and lovely. Because she’s pregnant, Tasha got to pick the restaurant so we ended up at El Torito, to satisfy her craving for Mexican food. The waiter there was a kick, but not in a very entertaining way — he spoke so quickly, and in a such a thick Spanish accent that we could hardly understand what he was saying. The service was great, though, and the food tasty.

After lunch, we went over to Doheny State beach. It was a little too cool and with a high surf warning in effect none of us were going swimming (though Anna managed to drench herself nonetheless). It was nice to sit and chat with Mom and Tasha while the girls dug sandcastle, though. (Actually, Lucy didn’t make a castle this time…she sculpted a Pokemon. The girl is obsessed.)

1. Pacific Ocean, 2. Sisters, 3. Beach Day, 4. Sculpting, 5. Dragon Flight, 6. Hard at Work, 7. Anna, 8. Exploring, 9. “You want me to eat what?”

I know: no pictures of me. That’s the problem with having a camera that no one else can get to work. But I really was there. In fact, I snapped this self-portrait while waiting for Anna in the El Torito bathroom. Why they had a mirrored panel overhead, I’ll never know.

It’s the right of every mother to brag endlessly about their kids. Well, I’m not going to go on forever, but I would like the world to take note of the kid to the right, who not only brought home a report card with a perfect 4.0 GPA, landing her on the Principal’s High Honor Roll for the quarter, but she also brought home a special Wildcat award for achievement in writing. It’s enough to make her writer-mama’s heart about burst with pride.

Not to be outdone, my not-so-little-anymore bunny, Anna, also scored above the mark across the board, though they don’t give honor roll awards in kindergarten. Just as well…there were so many plusses on her report card that they would have to invent a new GPA level just for her!

Yes, yes, my kids are geniuses. (Or is that genii? How should I know…I only studied Latin for 2 years!)

I just adore this picture I found in a Livejournal community — be sure to click on it to see it full sized.

The artist is named Fefa Koroleva, and that’s all I know since she’s Russian and I can’t read anything in her blog or gallery site. A shame, too. I’d love to know more about how she works. Is it entirely digital, or are some of the elements done the old fashioned cut-n-paste way?

Regardless, it’s given me some ideas about how tackle this project idea that’s been growing in my head, but was feeling hampered by my severe lack of figure drawing ability — I really didn’t want to have to put it off until I could take drawing lessons, you know?

In slightly unrelated news, I’ve been playing with the layout here. New graphics so far, and some organizational changes down the line. Still not sure what I’ll end up with, but it’s fun tweaking things!